Nissan Takes The Lead Role In ‘Gran Turismo The Movie’, Releasing In India This Weekend

Every enthusiast of racing video games and simulators will be familiar with a franchise called Gran Turismo. An exclusive for the PlayStation console that debuted in 1997, it is one of the best-selling sim-racing games in the world, known for both its competitiveness and ease of entry for novices.

Now, there’s a whole movie about the real story of the game that helped the fastest gamers realise their dreams of racing in the real world. It’s called the ‘Gran Turismo: The Movie’, releasing in India this weekend, August 25, and thanks to Nissan India, we’ve already seen it via an exclusive premiere.

Nissan and Gran Turismo

In 2006, a European Nissan Executive by the name of Darren Cox came up with the idea for GT Academy that would help PlayStation sim-racing drivers become real racing drivers. In 2008, the Nissan GT Academy was set up as a joint venture between Nissan and Sony (owner of the Gran Turismo franchise). To join the academy, there was a global competition on the simulator, followed by a real-world racing camp for the fastest competitors using Nissan’s sports cars. 

Based On A True Story

One of the star drivers from the academy was Jann Mardenborough from the UK and joined in 2011 at the age of around 19 years old. Upon completing the driver program, Nissan rewarded him with a drive in the Dubai 24 Hour race and went on to finish on the podium in his Le Mans debut in 2013 competing for the Japanese carmaker in the LMP2 class.

Also Read: Nissan Fairlady Z Gets The Nismo Treatment - More Power, More Aggression

The Gran Turismo movie follows the story of Jann Mardenborough and his journey to go from the simulator setup and PlayStation at his home to racing around the world, but takes large creative liberties with the details for cinematic entertainment.

Cars In The Movie

Since the whole program is a partnership between Nissan and Sony, we get to see the characters racing in the R35 GT-R for their racing driver training before moving on to its GT3 race-specification. The racecar competes against track-only iterations of the Lamborghini Huracan, Audi R8, Ford GT and McLaren 720S. 

Also Read: 5 Things That Make 2nd Gen Mercedes-AMG GT Better Than Its Predecessor

The off-track sequences even showcased a 992-gen Porsche 911 GT3 RS. 

Why It’s Worth A Watch

Gran Turismo The Movie takes an inspirational story and tries to make it appealing to a wider audience than just sim-racers and fans of motorsport. It focuses equally on the human elements of family, the stakes involved in racing both mortal and financial, as well as hope in chasing one’s dreams. The film is fast paced and uses a lot of cool animations that combine the feeling of both playing Gran Turismo and racing for real, with glorious car sounds throughout that you can enjoy in a cinema. As I mentioned before, the movie takes some creative liberties for the purpose of story-telling, so keep that in mind and just enjoy the racing scenes.